Italian Priests leaving Church of Rome.—According to the Écho des Vallées, a number of priests have left the Church of Rome and joined the Waldensian Church. Among those whose names are given are Abbé Minocchi, Arturo Mingardi, Biagio Angelo Mastrotto.
“Bulwark” Prize Competitions.—The editor of the Bulwark has been in the habit of offering prizes for essays dealing with the Covenants. Those interested in the education of the young might find in this a useful method of storing their minds with Protestant truth. The Bulwark may be had for one shilling and sixpence per annum from the office of the Editor, 227 West George Street, Glasgow.
A Booklet and a Sermon on Popery.—The subject of Popery is very much to the front at present, and we have just received before going to press a very interesting booklet re-issued by Miss Mackay, 85 High Street, Dingwall, entitled, “Twelve Interesting Letters by ‘Kirwan,’ America, to the Rev. John Hughes, Bishop of New York.” The price is 3½d.; per post, 4½d.; per dozen, 3/ post free. There are prefatory “Notes” by the Revs. D. Beaton, Wick, and D. Macfarlane, Dingwall. We have also received “A Sermon” by the Rev. D. Macfarlane, with title, “The Errors of Popery,” and text, Isaiah 59, 18. The price is 1d.; postage ½d. extra. Mr. Macfarlane’s name is sufficient to recommend the sermon as a useful and impressive one. As for the “Twelve Letters,” we cannot think of anything more telling in so brief compass on the subject of Popery. The style is both earnest and witty, and we consider the booklet is exceptionally suitable to be put into the hand of any young man or woman who needs instruction or conviction in regard to Romanism.
Adoration of the Pope.—It is well known that the Pope is adored while he sits on the altar at his consecration. But that ordinary Romanists on other occasions should also adore him enlarges the sphere of Papal idolatry. The Rev. George Tyrell, who not long since was expelled from the Jesuit Order, has written a letter to the Guardian calling attention to a specimen of Papal
idolatry in a French tract, entitled Devotion to the Pope, in which it is actually pointed out that there is a certain similarity between the Tabernacle as “the home of Jesus the Victim,” and the palace of the Vatican at Rome as “the home of Jesus the Teacher.” “What,” asks the tract, “can be more touching and beautiful than this parallelism? When we prostrate ourselves at the Tabernacle before the Sacred Host, therein contained, we adore our Lord in His Eucharistic Presence, which is substantial and personal: when we fall at the Pope’s feet to offer him the homage of our mind and to accept his teachings it is again, in a certain way, Jesus Christ Whom we adore in His Doctrinal Presence. In both cases we adore and confess the same Jesus Christ. Whence it follows by rigorous consequence that it is as impossible to be a good Christian without devotion to the Pope as without devotion to the Eucharist.” And yet Romanists get very angry when Protestants charge the Church of Rome with idolatry! Yet, is there not a cause?—Protestant Observer.